The life of the chemist in Harvard College can easily be reckoned in terms of Mallinckrodt laboratory. Here it is that the greater part of his four years is spent, getting an intimate acquaintance with the chemicals and procedures from which the whole of chemical knowledge has been derived. Professor Forbes once said that it is impossible to become a chemist by swapping small talk about the subject through smoke rings while sitting in an easy chair before a log fire. Much--perhaps the most important part--of the work in the field is that done in direct contact with the chemicals and apparatus, and that work is often slow and tedious.

Because of the large number of daylight hours required, one finds few men in the field who have drifted there for want of something better to do. A long day's work standing on the hard floors of Mallinckrodt will soon dissuade that man who is only mildly interested against continuing. It happens that Chemistry A is the first and biggest course of elimination. The men who survive this selection are easily divided into two groups: those who are determined to be chemists, and those who must pass off certain requirements to get into Medical School.

Beginning Courses Outlined

Of the elementary courses, (A, B, 33, 2a, 6, and 44) these things can be said: They are large survey groups and have the defects common thereto. In the lecture hall the student knows the professor only as he sees him across the lecture table. And in the laboratory the individual is a small unit who must cover a certain required set of experiments in a definite period of time, and then report on the work done to an assistant who listens at best only half-interestedly. To be sure, the assistants lead a harassed life with their own early graduate work and the simple questions of neophytes trying to make an impression. But, for all of that, the perplexed student will often find that he is more puzzled than helped by their often vague attempts to explain. Further, these courses are marked by sloppiness of laboratory technique, due to the students' unfamiliarity with the operations involved, and to the presence of pre-medical men who are not primarily interested in chemistry, but only in passing off bothersome course requirements.

There things, of course, are defects common to all elementary courses, no matter what the field. Once they are recognized and allowed for, one can see the advantages which more than out weigh them. Mallinckrodt laboratory is one of the finest available for undergraduate work. The average student will only begin to realize the opportunities open to him in its complete equipment and its storerooms after he has spent his four years there. The storerooms, in particular, are kept up to the minute in new developments in the chemical world, and if one is fortunate enough to have made a favorable impression on the storeroom men (the autocrats behind the delivery shelf), there is no limit on the activities of imaginative students.

If the young chemist successfully weathers the storms of these earlier courses (notably Chem 6, which is the transition between elementary and advanced work), he enters those which may be called "advanced." They are Chem 3a-b, 4, 5, 7, 9, 10, 11, and 13. The undergraduate may be able to include these all in his schedule, but ordinarily he doesn't. He begins to turn to one of the sub-divisions of the field: organic, physical, or analytical chemistry.

Here the student starts his work in earnest. Books are scarce, and those available often are written only in German. Lectures become more important, and classes are smaller. The professor is more informal than in his elementary classes, and the student first feels a degree of individuality when the professor learns his name and deigns to chat with him in the hall after a lecture. And since these men are, almost without exception, known and respected in the chemical world, the young man has the opportunity of hearing of and seeing the latest researches into the chemical frontier. As I've said, books grew scarce. It is impossible for books to keep up with the newly developing theories. The student must go to the journals and the original papers of the workers. Even his laboratory work changes in character. He has learned by this time the fundamental procedures and the little tricks of operation. Now he begins to bring his own ideas into play. Certain general problems are pointed out to him, and he is given freedom to investigate them as he sees fit. His technique develops into an art, and the serious men show a friendly rivalry in developing now refinements of procedure.

These higher courses well repay the men who have patiently endured the memory work of the first courses. From the factory-like regulations of the early work--where results must be produced in a certain time, and the student is ruled by limiting laboratory regulations, the step to the later work is most pleasant.

No General Examinations

The Department of Chemistry has not adopted the tutorial system and divisional examinations. The reason, as I understand it, is this: The preparation demanded of the college graduate in chemistry is such that no time is left for the addition of tutorial work. That is, a man must know a definite minimum of qualitative and quantitative analysis, he must known the principles of organic chemistry, and in the present day trend of development in physical chemistry he should be well informed. All this involves considerable lab work, in addition to the usual time needed for actual study. The Department does not feel justified in making more demands on the student's time.

There is a system of "Advisers," whereby each student is assigned to a member of the faculty during his undergraduate life. However, with one or two notable exceptions, a man's adviser never sees him except for a moment or two when a study card is to be signed. And even that time may be omitted if the adviser is too busy to be seen. Ordinarily, the adviser never figures in a man's plans for the year's work.

In spite of the few defects I have pointed out, I maintain that the Department of Chemistry is well run, and that everyman is given a fair chance to prove his worth as a chemist. The early work is exacting, but with its mastery comes the independence and fascination of efforts to push back the boundaries of the Unknown.